The Philanthropist vacations in Kosovo

Well, not literally, but talk about a place to go! When Teddy Rist (James Purefoy) gets out there, he doesn’t fool around.

Whether or not this episode was shot on location, that was one grey landscape, as far as the eye could see. International politics is a tough thing, and a lot of these countries (Nigeria, Myanmar, Kosovo … hell, let’s say France, too) are, as we speak, dealing with turmoil and lawlessness, poverty and corruption. I don’t expect a political science lecture on the show; I just hope that they don’t think they’re giving us one.

No, instead, The Philanthropist should just be junk food, with life lessons about helping others thrown in for bonus points. The intricacies of the Serbian/Albanian conflict, for one, are too dense to be covered in one hour, or even in twenty-four. Hopefully NBC doesn’t think they’ve found the future of television: educational adventure. The Philanthropist doesn’t play on that level.

But the show is an adventure.

There’s a thrill that I get from seeing a man like Teddy throw himself into the midst of these outrageous situations. In a way, he makes me think of Richard Branson, billionaire-daredevil extraordinaire. Although, hot-air balloons are one thing … I doubt Sir Richard spends much time running from gunmen in Africa.

“Kosovo,” like “Paris” before it, showed us the thinking side of Teddy, as much as the risk-taking one. It’s good to know that he has the intellectual ability to work through some of these situations, too. Not that I’m surprised; no matter what we’re supposed to believe, he would never have been half of a team that built a billion-dollar empire, like Maidstone Rist Industries, without that ability. But, the show would have us believe that Philip (Jesse L. Martin) is the brains, and Teddy is the face. Not so.

We were light on Michael K. Williams (Dax) again, and heavy on narrative (I cannot fathom why the writers find this a suitable method for telling their story). This time, the listener was Teddy’s ex-wife, Julia (Krista Allen). Actually, I was left wondering for much of the episode why Teddy was bringing her to Kosovo in the first place. The story-telling is a launching pad, so once it’s been a few minutes since the last occurrence, it does stray from the mind, and so Julia’s presence in Kosovo was not something that I was thinking about as the episode progressed.

The reveal came in the end, when we see the plaque that’s on display in the new youth center that Teddy built in Kosovo: dedicated in the memory of  Bobby Rist, their son. I can only imagine that it must be a powerful thing, to lose a child. It breaks couples up (Leverage, here), more often than not, at least on TV.

Will Teddy’s recognition of his own failures, after their son died, draw him and Julia back together? It certainly couldn’t hurt to have a more enjoyable relationship on the show than Philip and Olivia (Neve Campbell). But can things be repaired when a large piece is missing?

Is Teddy’s “impulse to fix everything,” particularly on the grand scale he’s now playing on, enough to keep them apart for good? What could be happening in San Diego (two weeks from now) that could possibly match Kashmir and Haiti (the week before, and after, respectively)?

Why not find out with me?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 23, 2009 @ 16:00 EST5EDT